Terms and Conditions of Use of APG Website

For reasons of easier readability and better comprehension, we sometimes dispense with an individuated representation of persons on all Austrian Power Grid AG websites. If just one term is used for individuals – e.g. employee, colleague, user -, this refers to both men and women alike.

Area of application and range of activities

The purpose of these terms of use is the use of the Internet sites (referred to hereafter as “APG websites” for short) made available by Austrian Power Grid AG (referred to hereafter as “APG” for short).

On its websites, APG provides industry- and company-related information for partners and the general public.

Furthermore, the individual services (e.g. special customer portals) that may be offered are subject to special terms of use and/or require a special registration. These special terms of use replace or supplement the terms of use of the APG websites and take priority over the latter.

By visiting or using the APG websites, respectively, the terms of use of the APG websites are accepted in their respective versions. APG has the right to alter these terms of use at any time.

APG is authorised to wholly or partially discontinue the website and/or to alter the content or services at will. APG does not guarantee continuous availability of the APG websites. No claim can be made for the usage or upkeep of the APG websites.

Provided that a user of the APG websites is not a consumer in terms of § 1 of the Consumer Protection Act, §§ 9,10 of the e-commerce law will not be brought into force.

Intellectual property rights

(1) Unless otherwise specified, the copyright for all documents on the APG websites (texts, images, graphics and similar) lie exclusively with APG.

As far as all rights are concerned (e.g. commercial property rights, copyrights and related rights etc.), nobody will be granted a licence or other rights.

(2) Excluded from this is the duplication of documents for personal, not public and not commercial use, as well as the application or use of material that has been specifically offered.

Brands, designs, images, texts, text components and other content of the APG websites may not only be altered, copied, duplicated, used, expanded or applied in any other manner without prior written agreement from APG.

Liability

(1) APG is only liable in the event of wilful intent or gross negligence. No liability is accepted for loss of profit, failure to make savings, lost or amended data, indirect damage as well as damages from third party claims, insofar as this does not conflict with any mandatory law.

(2) APG is not liable for incorrect or missing information on the APG websites. Hence, the user has sole responsibility for decisions based upon information from the APG websites. APG is especially not liable for indirect, concrete damages or consequential damages or other damages of any kind that– for whatever reason – are indirectly or directly connected to the information made available on the APG websites.

(3) APG does not take responsibility or liability for the services on the APG websites that are mediated, established or otherwise made available by third parties.
(4) APG has undertaken all reasonable endeavours to ensure that the information made available on the APG websites is correct and complete at the time of being made available. APG makes no pledges and undertakes no guarantees for the information made available on the websites, such as e.g. downloads, external links or other content, which is used - either directly or indirectly – or downloaded from the APG websites. APG also reserves the right, without prior notice, to make changes or additions to the information made available.

Availability of the APG Websites

(1) APG makes every effort to operate its websites continuously and to ensure that they are accessible – depending upon the existing technical, economic, operational and organisational possibilities.

(2) APG does not offer any guarantee that the APG websites or their contents are continuously operational or that they are available at all, that they are without errors or that errors will be rectified, nor do they guarantee that APG websites or supports (such as e.g. servers) are free from viruses or other dangerous components. APG does not accept liability for damage, irrespective of what kind, from the making available of the APG websites or supports, insofar as this is legally admissible.

(3) APG does not accept liability for periods of non-availability for technical reasons or for other problems.

Data protection

(1) For APG, dealing with personal data in a secure way represents an important basis for the daily work. In the following we wish to provide information on the most important aspects in the data protection area.

(2) APG will save and use all data transferred or disclosed via the APG websites, taking into account the current statutory regulations of the Austrian Data Protection Act.

(3) Austrian Power Grid AG and/or one of its subsidiaries is authorised to process data, which has been disclosed by users, for the development of service features, marketing activities or the provision of energy services. Furthermore, the user agrees to the receipt of information and advertising material via electronic media (e.g. per E-mail) from Austrian Power Grid AG. This agreement can be withdrawn at any time.

(4) Website analysisFor the acquisition of anonymised usage statistics, all APG websites employ the analysis software “Webtrends” from the company of the same name, based in Portland, USA. The above-mentioned software is installed on the servers of VERBUND in Austria and stores the following user information:

IP address (coded and therefore untraceable)
Geographic origins = town (automatically conveyed via the user’s Internet provider)
Time of access
Duration of access
Name of the site accessed
Name and version of the system software being used
Name and version of the web browser being used
Screen resolution

The gathered information will be used for the optimisation of the APG websites. The software does not allow any direct or indirect conclusions to be drawn about the user’s IP address. APG has sole access to the above-referenced data.

(5) Like many other websites, we use so-called cookies. These temporary data files contain the information that the user has already visited our websites. Thus, the user does not have to provide their user name at every login, for example. The user is personally able to prohibit the use of cookies at any time in their private browser settings. However, the technically faultless use of all APG websites can no longer be guaranteed as a result.

(6) APG undertakes all reasonable endeavours to offer the exchange of this data in as secure a way as current technical and organisational possibilities allow, such as by means of a 128-Bit coding (https) of the data to be transferred. At the same time, the user is requested to undertake all reasonable endeavours to ensure the confidentiality of their access data for the online services.

Applicable law and jurisdiction

This agreement shall be covered exclusively by Austrian law to the exclusion of the reference norms of international private law and to the exclusion of the provisions of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG). Vienna is the place of jurisdiction, insofar as it does not conflict with the mandatory law.

Concluding provisions

In the event that individual provisions of these terms of use become wholly or partially invalid or incomplete, the validity of the remaining provisions or part of such provisions remain unchanged. An invalid provision will be replaced by a legally valid provision that is as close as possible to the intended aim.

Imprint:

Information and publishing obligations in accordance with § 5 of the e-commerce law and §§ 24, 25 of the media law

Business objective:

(1) The objective of the company is
a) to construct and operate power lines
b) to ensure that the power grid operated by them is done so in a safe, reliable and efficient way and, taking environmental protection into consideration throughout Austria, that it is serviced, sustained and further expanded
c) to create the necessary technical prerequisites for the operation of the system
d) to fulfil the legal duties and obligations as control area manager
e) to complete all manner of transport and electricity delivery contracts
f) the purchase and sale of grid services for own use and for that of grid operators
g) to ensure the coordinated expansion and interoperability of the Verbund system
h) to conduct the transmission of electricity between high voltage power grids

Managing Board:

Thomas Karall
Gerhard Christiner

Key direction:

Industry and company-related information for customers, partners and the general public.

Special legal foundations:

Electricity industry and organization law with the associated regulations and implementation laws.

The listed legal foundations can be accessed via the legal information system of the Federal Chancellery of the Republic of Austria under:www.ris.bka.gv.at.